The present invention relates to the field of vehicle lighting and more particularly to signal lights for road vehicles such as, for example, passenger vehicles, motorcycles, construction and maintenance vehicles, farm equipment, trucks, busses, and the like.
All vehicles which travel on public roads are provided with a variety of lights which provide visual signals to pedestrians and other drivers on the roads. Currently, vehicles have stop lights, turn lights, headlights and running lights. Stop lights are generally only provided on the rear of the vehicles and are usually colored red. They provide a visual indication, primarily from the rear, that the brakes are being applied (i.e. that the vehicle is slowing rapidly). Turn signals are provided on the front and rear and are usually yellow or amber. Turn signals usually flash and provide a visual indication from the front, rear and sides that the vehicle is turning or intending to turn. Headlights are located on the front of the vehicle and, while they are primarily intended to illuminate the roadway at night, they also provide a visual clue to the direction of travel of the vehicle. Headlights are clear or white and are usually only used at night, but may be illuminated during the day for safety purposes. Running lights are frequently provided on the front, rear and sides of vehicles, particularly trucks. Running lights are generally amber or red, depending on location. They can generally be switched on or off at will and also provide a visual clue, especially at night and from the side, of the size of the vehicle and its direction of travel.
It can be seen that one important visual signal is missing: an indication from the front and side that the vehicle is slowing. Front mounted brake signal systems have been proposed by previous workers. See, for example, Technical Memorandum HuF-TM-1, "Subjective Evaluation of the Front-Mounted Braking Signal" by D. V. Post and R. G. Mortimer of the Highway Safety Research Institute of the University of Michigan, where apparently amber colored, front windshield mounted brake lights were tested.
Expedients proposed by previous workers in this field include, for example, Pirkey U.S. Pat. No. 1,553,959, issued Sep. 15, 1925, which appears to suggest manually operated, switch controlled turn and brake signal lamps for the front and rear of a vehicle. Bailey U.S. Pat. No. 1,806,276, issued May 19, 1931, generally describes a manually operated indicator lamp box consisting of three chambers including lamps and moveable reflectors in each chamber, and translucent stencil markings at the front which appears to be meant to be attached inside the windshield. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,190,123, issued Feb. 13, 1940, Pace generally proposes a manually activated indicator lamp box intended to be mounted in a vehicle, approximately in the area of the rear view mirror, to indicate to pedestrians to the front of the vehicle that the driver is yielding the right of way to the pedestrians. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,384, issued Jan. 16, 1968, Dankert generally proposes a signaling system for depicting a vehicle driver's actions. The proposed system apparently consists of a specially designed light, mounted someplace on the front of the vehicle, connected to sensors within. The light provides different colored visual signals depending upon whether the vehicle is at constant speed, accelerating, or decelerating. Annas has proposed, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,392, issued May 23, 1972, a driver communication signal light mounted on the front windshield connected to the vehicle brakes for indicating to pedestrians and other drivers when the driver has applied his brake. None of these prior workers suggest combining the front brake light with the turn or running light of the automobile in order to provide a change in visual signal to the front and side as the brakes are being applied. These and other disadvantages of the prior art have been overcome according to the present invention.